Digg staff going to Washington Post

It's not looking good for Digg, the once popular social news aggregator portal, as the company's tech team heads off for The Washington Post.

AllThingsD is reporting that the Washington Post is in talks to buy or hire the technology team at Digg, but not Digg itself, according to "multiple people familiar with the negotiations." It is rumored that the Washington Post plans to put the team to work with the team behind the publisher's Social Reader Facebook app.

It was initially reported by The Next Web that the publisher was buying Digg, but TechCruch later clarified that the deal being discussed was an "acqhire." The Washington Post doesn't plan to buy Digg, but instead plans to hire talent from internal teams at Digg. According to AllThingsD, both the Washington Post and Digg "declined to comment."

Digg was once one of the most popular destinations on the web, with web publishers spending large amounts of time and resources to get exposure on the site. But that time has passed. Over time, the website just began to lose its appeal, and "Digg wannabe" Reddit began to grow in relevance. This became especially apparent after the launch of Digg Version 4, which was not well received by their core user base. The company, in an effort to once again become relevant, tried appealing to mainstream users, but that always seemed like an impossible sell.

Once Digg and the Post have sealed the deal, Digg won't shut down. The site's management will continue to try and find ways to take advantage of "its brand name and traffic, according to people familiar with the company." However, Digg has been searching for a potential buyer for months with no success, and Google once considered buying the company before deciding to walk away, so there is little optimism that the company will ever be able to find a new home.